Rangers sign D Blake Parlett

New York, June 2, 2011 – New York Rangers President and General Manager Glen Sather announced today that the club has agreed to terms with free agent defenseman Blake Parlett.

Parlett, 22, skated in 24 games with the Connecticut Whale of the American Hockey League (AHL) this season, registering two goals and 10 assists for 12 points, along with 17 penalty minutes. He made his AHL debut on February 18 at Adirondack, and tallied his first AHL point with the overtime, game-winning goal, in a 2-1 victory at Springfield on March 5. Parlett tied for third among team defensemen in assists and points, despite playing in only 24 games. He also tied for fourth among AHL rookie defensemen with two game-winning goals. Parlett notched a goal in his AHL playoff debut at Portland on April 14, in Game One of their Atlantic Division Semifinal matchup. He finished the postseason ranked second among Whale defensemen in assists (two) and points (three), and tied for third on the team in assists and fifth in points.

The 6-1, 205-pounder began the 2010-11 season with the Greenville Road Warriors of the ECHL, registering seven goals and 25 assists for 32 points, along with 40 penalty minutes in 46 games. He led all ECHL defensemen in points, and was tied for the league lead among blueliners in assists at the time of his recall to Connecticut (AHL) on February 17. Parlett was assessed a fighting major while making his professional debut with Greenville on October 21 vs. Florida, and recorded his first career points with two assists on October 22 vs. Florida. He was named an ECHL All-Star, posting a plus-four rating in the game on January 26. Parlett tallied eight points (one goal, seven assists) in his final five games with Greenville from February 5 to February 15, prior to his recall to Connecticut (AHL). He also recorded one assist in two playoff contests with the Road Warriors.

Prior to turning professional, the Bracebridge, Ontario native skated in 301 career games with Barrie, Windsor and Mississauga of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), registering 28 goals and 88 assists for 116 points, along with 361 penalty minutes. He established OHL career-highs in goals (11), assists (35), points (46), and penalty minutes (108) with Mississauga in 2009-10. Parlett led Mississauga defensemen in points, goals and assists, and ranked second on the team overall in assists and fourth in points that season. In addition, Parlett registered nine points (one goal, eight assists) and 45 penalty minutes in 44 career OHL playoff contests with Barrie and Mississauga.a

No way. You don’t say. Did you also know they Shoot them when they fall or nick themselves on the gate? Did you also know the Jockey’s do drugs and have eating disorders? Did you also know that rich people LOVE horse racing?

This guy never gets old. His entry to the lunch competition today:
1. Big Grab bag of Munchos;
2. King Size Snickers; and
3. Gatorade.

After looking at the video of the Burrows biting incident, I sort of agree with not suspending him. He should be fined though. I didn’t see it at first, but Bergeron does put his fingers by his mouth. I forget what NHL player said it, but he said it best, “if you don’t want to get bitten, then don’t put your fingers in my mouth”

Definitely should be fined though. But, this is the NHL. You can strike heads, bite fingers, spear balls, and flick blood at people.

wow i missed alot from this morning. so if wedidnt trade fr erixon, mybe we couldve gottn richards for those 2 2nds and horak?? how many picks do we have in teh draft now? justa 1st and 3rd and then some later picks right?

again, srry for typos, but cccp made me laugh while drinking coffee yesteday, and keyboard is ruined, amost.

I don’t really have an issue with Gilroy being traded. I would just prefer it if he would ensure a player in return, whether it be a top offensive prospect or an NHL ready top-line forward in a semi-blockbuster.

RFAs:
Dubi/Cally/AA/Boyle/Sauer/Gilroy
*Excluding Gilroy I would expect these guys to get signed for somewhere between a combined 11-13, meaning you’ve got between a roster of 12 F+6 D+2 G for a cap hit of 54.8225 to 56.8225, excluding bringing back any UFAs.

UFAs:
Prospal/Fedotenko/Eminger not including Frolov because he’s as good as gone to KHL
*Realistically I think Feds is the only that can be asked back.

Oh man so it has been a crazy couple of days. I’m sick as a dog with the flu and worked all day yesterday (did not pull that stunt again today) so I sleep a while and every time I wake up, a new post with a new player move of some sort.

Doodie
nice wrap up BTW!!

old poop
How goes it?

bag lady
nice laurels!!

I can’t remember who brought it up last thread, but someone said OPG shouldn’t be moved and I disagree wholeheartedly. He has a ton of courage for blocking so many shots and I have no problem with him except he is way over paid and is a 3rd pair guy that plays on the 1st pair on our team. He is absolutely lost out there when he isn’t paired with staal (we all saw that). He makes like $3.5 mil per season…PER SEASON!

Which brings me to the next point, he should be sent to dallas for richards rights. It clears a roster spot on D for someone else and moves a chunk of salary for richards or someone else.

I’d wait another year and target the 2012 FA class. If we can’t land Sharp, who will be the premier center of that year, we could possibly go for a winger like Semin, or even sign a stud defenseman like Suter or Brent Burns. If we went the defenseman route, I would then move one of our younger defensive players. If Goligoski was enough for James Neal, we could probably package MDZ or this Erixon kid (assuming he is the real deal) with a draft pick and land a top player from a rebuilding franchise.

Sharp is only a year (ok 1.5 years) younger than Richards. I like him, he’s a better goal scorer than Richards, but I have the feeling that his numbers get a nice boost from playing with guys like Toews and Kane. He’s not always a center for them either.

I don’t have a problem with waiting another season. it gives you a little more time to evaluate the young players on the way up. maybe there is an answer in Thomas, or, Kreider. I don’t think the Rangers plan is to wait another season. they are going to try to get a number 1 center this season. Richards makes the most sense because all he is going to cost is money. a Stasny, or anyone else who may be available is going to cost assets. valuable ones.

I’ve said this before. Sharp is going to be a much younger 31 than Richards is. Richards has played in 835 NHL games (regular season and playoff combined). Sharp has played in only 551. Even if Sharp were to play in the maximum 110 games next year, he would still have played 134 less games than Richards at 31. That’s basically a season and a half.

I don’t know if it’s more that Richards is an old 31 or Sharp a young 31, or some combination thereof, but Sharp will be a younger 31 than Richards is.

CCCP/Bull Dog – How about this. We trade Gilroy for a draft pick and give the finger to Nieuwendyk and then pitch an offer to Richards on July 1. Richards has no incentive to sign with anyone before then, unless that team is offering him more than he’s making now or an offer he can’t refuse.

Doodie – NOOOOO…to Semin. Soft, headcase Russian who will command big bucks and will then disappear. No thanks. As for Sharp, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s in the Hawks’ long-range plans. As for Erixon and Del Zotto, neither of them is in the category of Goligoski yet. I’d also be astonished if the Rangers traded the guy they just acquired.

what really grabbed me in a WTB moment was this
“The team even with his onerous salary has around $20 million in cap space. That will admittedly be needed to fill a number of huge gaps, especially on defense.”

our d looks much less questionable now than it did a year ago thanks to Sauer and McD
and one hopes that MDZ will rebound and Erixon will make pop proud and Gilroy (?) and Valtank (?)

jpg- this guy has no idea about our team’s cap situation, defensive depth, or anything else. He mentioned Colorado, and I stopped reading right after. Colorado ownership had issues paying their lease this year, that was the reason the rumors about them trading Stastny were swirling. And now they will add Drury? Geez….

wicky – No prob. Ya’ did leave out a couple of key players though…namely Girardi and Dubinsky. Was that by design I imagine?

jpg – That link is exactly why Bleecher Report postings always drive me nuts. The guy totally contradicts himself. First, he points out that Drury has a no movement clause. Then he suggests that he’ll go to the Oilers of all places? Really?!? Guess he didn’t read all the stories about Drury loving New York, it being a life-long dream to play here and that he’s happy to be living and playing so close to where he grew up and so on. There are two options with Drury: Buy him out(in which case I wouldn’t be surprised if he signs with either Buffalo or the Islanders) or keep him. I suspect they do the latter, since his contract is up in one year anyway.

On the defense, I don’t know what you mean by ‘questionable’ or what the Bleecher author means by ‘huge gaps.’ There were two constants last season: Lundqvist and the defense. They basically had a 1A and 1B pairings once McD was up to stay. Third pairing was a bit rocky at times, but its, well, third pairing. What do you expect? Now if you’re talking about the point on the PP, I’m all ears. That definitely needs some help.

And if the Rangers decide not to buy him out, they will have a little less than $5M to work with, after they resign all their RFAs. Not nearly enough to improve the team. The difference between his actual salary ($5M) and cap hit ( just above $7M), along with only one year remaining on his contract, are the exact reasons why I believe he will be bought out.

phil
yes, I left them off intentionally. As well as avery and WW. I think depending on certain moves/decisions they may or may not be here. I was curious about the cap hit for the guys I am 99.9% sure would be here (IMHO), although I guess erixon could be in CT. I will admit though, I think Dubi is about a 95% lock to be here as well, but there are a few scenarios that IF they developed, I would move him in a heartbeat!

now lets get to work on some goal scorers…by the way Richards is not a goal scorer and will cost too much money (he is a great player, but more of a play maker)…we need snipers…who are the UFA’s that have the most goals scored the last couple of years?

Wow, you guys were watching basketball last night? This is like finding out that there is no Santa Claus. Nowitzki had a boo boo on is *NON* shooting hand and he played? What a warrior. Too bad there are no gutsy players in hockey like that.

i like bball and i think more people are wtching to see the heat lose. i really want the knicks and rangers both to be good again like the 90’s. it was great in 94 watching knicks and rangers both in the finals. both teams supporting each other by going to games was awesom.
ilb- idk i heard it somewhere, but boy i’m so sited!!!

phil, re: Stamkos, Tampa isn’t a rich franchise. They might be able to match the cap number of any contract we offer him, but if we give him max salary for one or two years, they might not be able to match the dollars. I’d like to see them pay Stamkos 12 million bucks for two years.

The Bruins are an interesting study in that this almost non-descript team has advanced farther than did the Bruins team of recent vintage which had bona fide stars like Kessel, Thornton, and Savard. The supporting cast is better now, perhaps more mature, but now they have fewer game-breakers. Timing is everything, this team is slightly mis-calibrated.

yo manny 4 fingers!! i had a dream that we signed blake parlett. tell me im not dreaming. did we really sign him? im so happy. slats must rea this blog, he is signing a team full of d men!! just 5 more goalies and we’ll be set!

boom boom- its called 5 in the box, 5 in the back, and 5 in teh net. its the new strategy so e never gt scored on agan. since were not gonna have any offense besides gabby for awhile, we might as well suit up 5 goalies, an 12 d men. we’ll win in shootouts. 1-0 shootout wins. zuccarllo with 82 gwgs

http://www.tsn.ca is the best site I have found for solid, off-season organizational evaluations. Scott Cullen offers an excellent, in-depth and unbiased analysis there, breaking-down the Rangers organization. tsn.ca is an upgrade option to The Bleacher Report. Canadian columnists and reporters know their hockey.

Gaborik has a NTC and is coming off one of his worst seasons in his career
Wolski is a better buyout candidate than trade chip
Avery has a partial NTC, is pretty much un-tradeable due to his reputation
Christensen has no trade value
Giving up on MDZ (while suggesting that Kaberle could be a FA target) would be a mistake
Gilroy is overpaid for his role and there’d be little interest in trading for his rights. Better off letting the Rangers not qualify him and let him walk as an UFA.

Following are 50-man contract reserve lists. Players denoted with “SR” — the abbreviation for a contract “slide risk” — do not necessarily count toward the team’s 50-man limit, meaning a team may appear over the 50-man limit when it is not. See ou

CTB, no question that some of them aren’t coming back. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Gilroy wasn’t back. Just too much of a logjam and he will likely want to be a regular somewhere else. In truth, I think he is going to become a decent hockey player. He was our best defenseman (other than Staal) during the playoffs.

I think some of the moves like Parlett are to lower the number of vets on the Whale. If I’m not mistaken they’ve got a few guys that are approaching the minimum number of games to be considered a vet in AHL terms. I think there’s quite a few career AHLers on the team. Lower that count will give them flexibility to place someone from the NHL roster in the AHL if need be.

I guess as Rangers fans we’re kind of used trying to figure out who to root for after the Rangers are eliminated (or don’t make the playoffs). I tend to root for the West once the Rangers are out especially if an Eastern team I particularly loathe makes the finals.

oleo, I definitely agree with you on the three you listed, and on Valentenko as well. No need to ride buses in Hartford now that there are 6 young guys who are firmly ahead of him on the depth chart. Go to the KHL and make significantly more money that is also tax free.

The Whale will be fresh with young prospects next year like Ryan Bourque, Dylan McIlrath, and Carl Hagelin, I definitely will try to catch some games live. Career minor-leaguers like Dupont and Bickel will probably be gone…

Did you guys hear that Lindberg is actually Erixon’s cousin? That is funny!